Providence marches against the Trump Administration's fascist overreach in Los Angeles

"We’re seeing what’s happening in L.A. We saw what happened in New York City. It’s our right to protest that’s under attack right now."

“We called this less than 24 hours ago,” said Gabriel Torres, emceeing the emergency protest responding to President Donald Trump sending the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles to aid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after four days of resistance. “All these beautiful people of conscience understand that from L.A. to New York City to Providence, we will fight ICE, we will defend our communities, and we will stand up for what is right. Let them hear you. Let them know that we’re watching them as much as they’re watching us.”

Over 700 people gathered outside the Joseph A Doorley Jr. Municipal Building at 444 Westminster Street in Providence at 6 pm. After a brief speaking program, the rally evolved into a march that headed towards the Providence Federal Center, located across from Kennedy Plaza. The peaceful event lasted about two hours.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the AMOR Network were two of the groups organizing the event.

Here’s the video:

Torres continued:

“I look at all your beautiful faces, you people of conscience, continuing to come out and fight against this injustice. It reminds me of the last five years. Raise your hand if you were protesting in 2020. We’re continuing this fight. We’re going to be out here in the streets until we’re all free.

“The movement for Black Lives, the student intifada, Occupy Wall Street - we can keep going. All of these struggles, the Flotilla right now, the fight against imperialism, all these things are connected. We’re fighting fascism on a global level and so many different fronts. We know an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. It’s all these struggles, all these different moments, culminating in this process of resistance, community defense, and getting to know each other. We’re coming out to these rallies and protests because we know we’re going to continue to show up and stand up, and we’re going to continue to speak up against this injustice.

“That’s why we’re here today, because we’ve got to keep that hope. We’ve got to keep that fire, and we’ve got to keep that fight. We can’t be defeated. It’s simply not an option. Any level of defeatism is just competition against ourselves, and there’s enough competition out there. When I look at all of you, I know we can beat it.

“We’ve got to understand what’s at stake. We’re seeing what’s happening in L.A. We saw what happened in New York City. It’s our right to protest that’s under attack right now. That’s why we’ve got to continue to stand out here, keep showing up, keep speaking up, and show them that they can make this shit illegal and we’ll continue to show up because we know these laws are not a reflection of timeless principles.

“We’re people of conscience. We follow our moral compass. We know what’s right for ourselves. We know what’s right for others. As we continue to fight for others, that’s how we free ourselves, by speaking out against the resistance at the local level, here in Providence.”

“I want to start by saying, ‘Fuck ICE.’ ICE has been terrorizing all of our communities, all the way from Los Angeles to here in our local communities,” said Reina. “I have seen it with my own eyes.

“It is annoying. It is terrorizing. It is traumatizing for our children, communities, and your loved ones. Immigrants are working in all walks of life. They are people who pick your food. They are people who work in your healthcare system. They work and they build this economy up more than anybody else in this goddamn country. I can tell you that I’m scared for my life, but honestly, I am scared for my family more than anything else. That’s why I speak here today: because I am scared for my family who came to this country looking for a better life, but this is what we get, and that’s unfair. So I want you to repeat after me: Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE! Abolish ICE!

“I am sick and tired of ICE terrorizing. We have our eyes on you, ICE. We’re watching more than ever before. The world is watching. Your community is watching, and even the lawmakers are watching. United, they won’t be able to take us down.”

“As we have stood, for the last several days, watching the state at all levels, from ICE to the police to the National Guard rain Hell on the people of Los Angeles, we have also seen our comrades out there saying, ‘Enough.’ Our people in Los Angeles understand that the inhumane kidnapping of immigrants in our communities is connected to the imperialist plunder that this country has caused across the world,” said Loubna Qutami, from the Palestinian Feminist Collective. “They understand that the unconstitutional repression of free speech and civil rights is connected to the imperialist plunder across the world. They understand that attacking immigrant communities is connected to the racist state that has killed Black and brown people for centuries and has incarcerated Black and brown people for centuries.

“So, as we sit here and say Abolish ICE, that means the abolition of the police. It means the abolition of imperialist plunder. It means the abolition of the racist state incarceration. It means the abolition of capitalist warfare on the working class. It means the abolition of sexual and gendered violence against all of our communities.

“This fight against racist border regimes is connected to the fight against Zionism. It’s connected to a genocide that has now lasted over two years on the besieged Gaza Strip. Yesterday, the Israeli state intercepted the Freedom Flotilla, the Madeleine boat. They dropped chemical weapons on the boat before seizing and kidnapping the 12 participants. That boat set off to Gaza to break the siege that has now lasted more than 18 years. Yesterday and this morning, thousands from Tunisia and Algeria boarded buses to travel to Egypt. They’ll join thousands more from all over the world on June 12th and will begin the march to Raffa.

“We witnessed world leaders and an international system not only tolerate, not only participate, but allow for a genocide that we are all watching from our Instagram balconies for two years. People of the world are saying, ‘not in our name,’ but it’s on all of us. It’s on us to follow the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the march to Gaza over the next week and a half because the more noise we make, the more the thousands of people who are going to Gaza to break the siege know that we’re standing with them; the more the Palestinian people, who have endured decades of incarceration and colonial brutality, know that we are committed to continue revitalizing this struggle; and the more world actors know they can’t get away with shutting us all up.

“We will win. We will declare victory, and our people will all be free.”

“Who here has heard of the Deportation Defense Network?” asked Gabriel Torres. “We’re talking about resistance here. We’re talking about how resistance is glorious. I’m a proud organizer with the Deportation Defense Network. We’ve got a number 401-675-1414. Memorize that number. We’ve got people with flyers out here as well. This is a number that people can call whenever they have any suspicion of federal agents or ICE in their neighborhood. We show up, mobilize the community, and show them exactly what we’re capable of.

“And we do it not for each other. We do it with each other. It’s not an act of charity, it’s an act of political activity. We understand that these are the forces of fascism that hate this kind of thing. They hate it when we talk this way. They hate it when we congregate like this. That’s why we know they’re watching, and we’ll continue to watch them.

“That’s why we do ICE Watch. We’re going to watch them everywhere they go so they know that whenever they try to steal our loved ones, neighbors, coworkers, or family members, we will be there. It’s not business as usual anymore. They can’t go on as usual anymore.”

“I’m the son of Guatemalan and Salvadorian immigrants, and I’m a proud member of the Party for Social and Liberation,” said Jair Perez. “I am standing here almost 20 years, since A Day Without an Immigrant, a national action where I marched with my dad down these streets to fight against fascist, anti-immigrant legislation. All the threats that Bush promised to harm immigrants with came crashing down after that day. They were trying to pass such absurd legislation - if you were a doctor and treated someone undocumented, you could go to jail for it.

“That bill fell apart under the force of the immigrant movement during that second Bush Administration. Now, I’m here today for a similar reason. As ICE terror is being directly challenged in the streets of Los Angeles, the people of L.A. remind everyone watching that the highways and all belong to the people, and we can take them away whenever we want. All the threats Trump has administered before he took office. All the intimidation tactics and social terror levied against immigrants have been met with an equal and opposite force in the streets of Los Angeles, the immigrant intifada.

“The people of this country have been students of struggle. Everyone my age has lived through the racist and Islamophobic war on terror. They lived through Hurricane Katrina. They lived through the 2008 financial crisis and the Occupy movement. They’ve lived through the lynchings of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown. They’ve lived through the pandemic and the George Floyd uprisings. They’ve lived through the genocide of Palestine and the movement to liberate it from Zionism. They are students of struggle, and they’re getting ready to graduate, not six months into this fascist nightmare. And the people of L.A. have already cornered ICE, burned cars, and taken the highway.

“Not six months in, and this counterattack against ICE already exists. It’s a reality - it’s already a part of history. Trump has already called in the National Guard, and the crowds of Los Angeles were pushing them down the highway yesterday. This is why they terrorize us: because they know what it looks like when we’ve had enough. They know what we’re capable of, and what it looks like when we stop fighting between ourselves and focus our rage on our shared enemy: our oppressor.

“So, when the people of Los Angeles rose to defend their neighbors, were they rising to defend themselves.

“It sends shivers down the spine because the people are learning their power, and once they learn about it, they’re never forgetting it. For over a year and a half, we watched the Palestinian people resist genocide on the world stage against all odds, damn near alone, but with worldwide support from the people of every single country in the world. And if they can resist with no food, no water against a blockade, against the genocide, an apartheid state by the most Nazi country in the world, we can resist. We can resist.

“I’ll take it further. We owe Palestine our resistance because the genocide is coming from the White House. It’s coming from the capital. We have the same oppressor. That’s why we’re all Palestinians.

“At this moment of heightened domestic oppression, a moment of unmasked fascism, that Border Czar on TV crying that we’re too mean to ICE. They’re fucking afraid. That’s why they terrorize us. That’s why they brutalize us: so we don’t notice. It’s at this moment that we can turn the tide. We can bring this entire system crashing down if we understand our power and organize accordingly. Can the ruling class handle two crises right now? Can they handle the backlash of the illegal capture of the Freedom Flotilla and a crisis for the national mobilization for the defense of immigrants? I don’t think they can. They can barely handle their own White House stuff right now.

“This is the perfect time to show them our strength and resolve because these last five years we’ve been in the gym and the last five years in this city and across the country, I’ve never seen so many people organizing, raising their consciousness, and building unity across labor, national liberation, and gender rights.

“We’ve learned so many lessons in the last five years alone, and the ruling class thinks they’re dealing with the same people from five years ago during the George Floyd uprising. But we’re stronger, smarter, and faster. We have more capacity, we’re more united, and most importantly, we’re more organized.

“This is the perfect test of strength to show them that not only do we not need ICE, the police, the politicians, the Democratic or Republican parties, or anybody to do politics for us to keep us safe. We keep ourselves safe, and we can take the streets and shape history whenever we want. Not only do we not need them, but we’re better off without them. And that’s the only thing between us and revolution. How many of us believe and operate on the idea that we don’t need our oppressor, that we’re better off without them, and start thinking and planning about how to live beyond them?

“When ICE showed up in L.A. two days ago and locked up migrants in a basement, who came to save them? Was it the politicians or the people who were to blame? It was us. We make history. We change the world. Every bridge built, every student instructed. Every drop of blood donated, every surgery performed. It was all the working class. The politicians either attack us or take credit for our work. What they say at a podium or in an Instagram reel has no bearing on the real world; the time for all optics and no substance is over. If they want to prove they are leaders, I want to see them in the streets. I want to see them on the defense line, verifying, doing outreach, and organizing workplaces. Working people are leaders in their own right. Our class produced all the leadership we needed before, during, and after the revolution.

“We don’t need saviors. We need to do what we do best. We do the work and complete it together. Because, like Gabe said, we aren’t going back to business as usual. We’re not having ICE run by the Democrats instead. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re building a world post-ICE. We’re building a world post deportations. We’re building a world post genocide. We’re building a world post-evictions and debt, a world where we don’t have to choose between paying medical bills and our rent.

“The ruling class wants to stop every single improvement in our lives and wants to take every single one of our rights away. They have put a barricade between us and every single one of our needs, and the only way we can get past it is through it. There is no perfect time to join the fight. The best time to join the fight was yesterday. The best time to join the fight was last week. The next best time is today because if we don’t fight, we don’t win. But if we dare to struggle, we dare to win. Long live the people of L.A., long live the Immigrant intifada, and Abolish ICE.”

“Just as Jair said, we’re all students of the struggle, and we’re getting ready to graduate,” said Gabriel Torres. “We’re the ones who are building bridges. We’re the ones teaching kids. We’re the ones cleaning up messes because we’re the working class, and there is no family bigger than the working class. There was someone in the crowd wearing a shirt that said, ‘Only You Can Prevent Fascism.’ We are exactly what we’ve been waiting for. Everyone right here: we are the solution. We’re the ones who can bring the change that we know we need. We don’t have to pick between rent and heating. We know that there are plenty of resources here because we create,

“We know all the value in this country wouldn’t exist without our hands, expertise, and technical skills because we’re the ones who have to work. We’re the ones who create it. Without them, billionaires would be nothing.

“Some people are so broke, all they have is money.”